Seeing the Monkees on stage for the first time in over a decade, it is admirable how they come across as all things to all Monkees fans:
1. Song and dance men
2. Sitcom stars.
3. Top 40 interpreters
4. Serious artists.
5. Hippies
6. Nostalgists
This became clear, limitations and all, almost immediately. The Monkee's 45th Anniversary Show at the Beacon Theater, Thursday, June 16th, 2011 show, began with their 10 piece back up band playing an instrumental medley of Monkee hits while the original Hollywood Reporter ad looking for four actors to play an imaginary rock band flashed on a screen, before the Monkees audition tapes and finally excerpts from the show. This was followed by a rambunctious "I'm A Believer" -three Monkees (a fourth -guess which, failed to make it) center stage, and finally Mickey's shout out to the loving audience, "HELLO CHICAGO".
That's the tightrope Peter, Davy and Mickey walked all through their set and sometimes they buckled but they never got bucked.
The back up band were a good not great one, sometimes the songs fit together, mostly when inveterate showman Davey Jones took control. The playing had a loose lived in feel, kinda odd given that I would guess it is just a pick up band. They were over loud sometimes, sloppy others, but quite capable of following abstruse early psychedelia with the same ease as Neil Diamond classics.
Whether soft shoe shuffling across the stage to "Daddy's Song" or, before "I Wanna Free" (a piece of misogyny in a league with "Cuddly Toy"), requesting "If you know the words, don't sing along, it puts me off", or singing backup for that matter, Jones is a winning persona. From my miles away perch in the cheap seats, he looks the same, and the girls still love him. A montage of scenes from the TV sitcom shows Davy falling in love over and over and over again with stars in his eyes, meanwhile on stage Davy is both sincere and ironic on "When Love Comes Knocking On Your Door". It is a somewhat remarkable performance, timeless Jones. Just so pro, so in control, his ego mooted and at service to the songs and his sense of the ridiculous taking equal billing with his sense of showmanship.
The years have been somewhat kind to Peter Tork as well. Always the quiet one (remember "Peter Tork, talk"?) the multi-instrumental lynchpin allows the band to be seen as relevant. What would have really made them relevant is Nesmith; there is no way Nesmith wouldn't have insisted on some new material. Tork doesn't have that pull so despite having his trombone play before it reaches his lips (naughty, naughty), he is fine on all his songs. A powerful "For Pete's Sake", and a star turn on "Auntie Griselda" and maybe never more so than playing banjo and singing lead on Nesmith's "What Am I Doing Hanging 'Round"
As for Mickey…? Mickey is the leader and the most telling stories come from him. The first, Mickey tells of the Beatles having a party for the Monkees in London and Mickey tripping out and waking up in a strange hotel room and writing "Randy Scouse Git". The song itself is a hippie bromide with whimsical verses and a bombastic chorus where Dolenz takes on the persona of the "them" in the "young generation" us and themism. He wallops a big drum midstage and seems aged and iffy. All their hippie philosophy songs sound very, very dated, "Can You Dig It" an embarrassment of bullshit. A little later Dolenz tackles the speed rap "Going Down" and his voice fades in and out of focus. There is only so much he can do with the instrument on hand.
The other Dolenz story he tells with Davy by his side. He remembered living in Beverly Hills at the beginning of Monkeemania. They were both hired hands for the network, living on a pittance. The day he is remembering, they had spend all day filming the show, and all evening recording at a studio. Dolenz was leasing a Mustang (Nesmith's brother-in-law would wreck it one day), and the two friends were driving to the house they shared. Mickey had been told the day before their album was just released, and the radio station was playing an all Monkeeday and this song, the first time they'd heard it complete, was playing. The song was "Last Train To Clarksville" and 45 years later the band banged it out for us. The Monkees don't play a great version but it is more than simply nostalgia. The Boyce/Hart song stands up so well. According to songfacts.com "Boyce and Hart wrote this as a protest to the Vietnam War. They had to keep this quiet in order to get it recorded, but it is about a guy who gets drafted and goes to fight in the war. The train is taking him to an army base, and he knows he may die in Vietnam. At the end of the song he states, "I don't know if I'm ever coming home." It feels important in the moment and while Dolenz can't sing it, he can be carried by it, the Monkees allow themselves to begin again on the track.
Sometimes the band get the artistry right, and I don't mean the 5 song medley from "Head". Rather, "Shades Of Grey" is a beautiful shared moment between the three; Tork and Dolenz trade lines on Mickey's best vocal moment "Words" and really the final 7 (you heard me SEVEN) songs before the encore are an accumulation of well executed in pop songs culminating in a singalong to "Daydream Believe".
And despite a whatever first song after the encore there is "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a reprise of "I'm A Believer" and a reminder as we hit the road: "Hey, Hey We're The Monkees".
Of all the GREAT ROCK BANDS, nobody gets less respect than the Monkees. They aren't even in Jann Wenner owned and operated "Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame" but as Lennon once said, "The Monkees have their own thing and I'm not gonna put them down for it." If it is good enough for Lennon, right? Me, I loved them when I was 10 years old and I love them now.
Nesmith is MIA, Dolenz's voice is shot, Tork's hair is thinning, and Jones can't help himself wisecracking. And at least three of them proved yet again, 45 years on, that they are a great rock band. Two hours of fun. Hey, hey, they're the Monkees and long may they Monkee around.
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